Industry transparency report to be launched

The National Business

Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel is expected to launch two PNG Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (PNGEITI) reports in Port Moresby today.
The reports, concurrently compiled last year, cover the fiscal years 2015 and 2016 and encompass large-scale mining, oil and gas projects that were in production.
PNGEITI head of secretariat Lucas Alkan said yesterday: “The reports list nine reporting entities from mining sector and seven entities from the oil and gas sector that made material payments to the government in 2015 and 2016.
“It also lists seven SOEs (State-owned enterprises) and eight relevant government departments that received these payments in the same years.”
Alkan said the revenue streams covered in the reports were:

  • Mining and petroleum tax (corporate income tax);
  • group tax (tax withheld on employee salaries); and,
  • Royalties, equity distributions, production levy, dividends and development levies.

“Apart from reconciliation of these revenues and payment figures, the reports also provide detailed contextual information on the extractive sector,” he said.
“That include such information as existing laws and fiscal regimes governing the sector, its contribution to the economy, license registers and so forth.
“The Government made significant progress towards meeting EITI global best-practice requirements to be accepted as an EITI-compliant country.
“We’ve had the honour having Prime Minister Peter O’Neil launch the first EITI report in 2016.
“Now we are going to have the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Charles Abel – chairman of the multi-stakeholder group – the PNGEITI overseeing body to launch the two reports.
“The first report highlighted serious information gaps and inconsistencies that required Government attention. These were listed as recommendations for the Government to consider, going forward in the next EITI reports.
“Consequently, these were brought to NEC (national executive council) where a directive was given for affected State entities to implement those recommendations.”